


A Dark and Stormy Night

by Kiki_G_Marie



Category: Stardew Valley (Video Game)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-15
Packaged: 2018-06-02 04:05:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,079
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6549967
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kiki_G_Marie/pseuds/Kiki_G_Marie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a(nother) night in the mines goes terribly, terribly wrong for novice farmer Kihaji Granger, she's forced to witness how her insecurities are affecting the people she cares about.<br/>Harvey is forced to wonder where exactly he stands with the woman he thought was his good friend, and if she ever trusted him at all.<br/>And Shane is forced to deal with the fact that his "best friend" is an idiot who severely needs medical attention, and her doctor is like an overprotective dad, and YOBA he just wants out of this melodrama before it gets MESSY.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Harvey Worries

Harvey’s nights were usually pretty quiet. As much as he loved living in Pelican Town, in a small community of people who he could help in real ways, he was still the introverted bookworm he’d always been. Occasionally he would venture out to the saloon for an evening, and he’d never miss a festival for the world, but the truth of the matter was that he needed a lot of time alone to balance out with the very social nature of his day-to-day job. 

So yes, his nights were usually very quiet. He’d spend them reading with a glass of wine, or working on his models, or fiddling with his broadcast equipment. Sometimes, like this particularly rainy night in Spring, he’d be downstairs in the clinic, taking inventory or cleaning up. One of the trials of being a small-town doctor with a private practice and only one part-time employee, he supposed. He didn’t mind, there was always something soothing about methodically filling out lists or rhythmically sweeping, mopping, or dusting. It was peaceful and mindless, and allowed his thoughts to wander in a way reading and model-building couldn’t. Right now, as he was sweeping the floor in the larger patient care room, Harvey’s thoughts were on the newest addition to Stardew Valley.

He hadn’t the foggiest idea what to expect when word got to him that a farmer was coming to take over the dilapidated ruin that was Milk & Honey, even less so when he was told that they were the previous resident’s grandchild. Being a slightly newer addition to the town, he hadn’t known the previous owner, and had always known the land as a beautiful, overgrown, abandoned section of the valley, lost to time. He wondered what kind of person would drop everything they had in the city and move out here in a mad attempt to tame that sort of place. 

A few weeks later, he got his answer. He had just finished up opening he clinic when Maru walked in for work, humming to herself. “Good morning, Maru. You certainly seem to be in a good mood today. Did something happen?” Harvey smiled as he shuffled through the day’s schedule on a clipboard. He had a house visit to make to George, then Jas was being brought in by Penny for a checkup as a favor to Marnie, who he had down for the twelfth, he had to write a letter to Shane today to arrange an appointment…

“Oh, I am! I met the new farmer yesterday!” Maru said as she leaned on the wall beside the door to her post at the front desk. “It was absolutely brilliant!”

“I imagine, for you to be this happy about it, they were exactly what you were expecting?” 

“Oh, not _remotely_! But that’s what makes meeting new people so great, after all.” Maru laughed. “I’d venture to say the new farmer is a walking contradiction.” Harvey glanced up from his clipboard with a confused frown. 

“What in the world do you mean by that?” 

“You’ll see!” Maru sing-songed, before backing through the swinging doors to take up her post. Harvey shook his head and gave a fond smile. Maru had a brilliant mind, which endeared her to him greatly, but she also had enough mischievous energy in her to make even the sternest of school-marms quake in fear. 

A couple of hours passed, and Harvey got into the rhythm of things at work. He made the house-call, saw to Jas, and then waited in the large back room with a book should any walk-in patients appear. And that was when…

“Kihaji, you made it! I’m so glad!” Maru’s voice rang out from the front desk. Harvey’s head shot up and he raised an eyebrow out of curiosity. 

“I-I’m sorry it’s so late in the day, Maru…” said a softer, deeper voice. “There was a literal forest growing in front of the house when I opened the door today. Took all morning to clear.” Maru laughed at that, causing the owner of the other voice to give a small chuckle. 

“Don’t worry about it, I’m just glad you could make it. I really want you to meet Dr. Harvey!” Harvey smiled slightly and rose from his seat to meet the new arrival halfway, feeling awkward just sitting and waiting when he could hear everything being said already. “C'mon, he’s just through here…” 

What came next, however, gave Harvey pause. 

“Oh, n-n-no, Maru! I don’t have an appointment, I’m not an employee, I shouldn’t b-be back in the… I c-can’t…!” The smile dropped from his face. Legitimate fear is what he heard there. Someone who wasn’t comfortable in this situation, someone who was downright afraid of being here. And that should never happen, not in his clinic, where he’d gone to great pains to make sure the townsfolk felt welcome and taken care of. He walked briskly to the doors for the waiting area. Maru, as brilliant as she was with machines, was not quite as skilled with social nuance. She took the farmer’s protests as mere politeness, and was still pushing them. 

“Oh, Kihaji, it’s absolutely fine! No need to worry, Dr. Harvey doesn’t mind at all when people come back to…” Harvey opened the door, probably with more force than he intended, misjudged his own speed, and bumped straight into the stranger in his waiting room. And while normally such a collision should have merely jostled them both, for Harvey it felt more like hitting a soft, warm brick wall, before ricocheting backwards few steps to hit his head on the swinging door, and landing, embarrassingly, on his backside. He could hear Maru stifling laughter before he’d even hit the ground. Wonderful. 

“O-Oh Yoba above, sir, I am _so_ sorry! I had no idea you were coming out of that door, I would’ve stood much farther back if I…!” 

“I-it’s quite alright, that was entirely…” Harvey looked up, and up, and up, meeting the eyes of the new farmer. “My… fault.” 

She was a young woman of great height, with brown, freckled skin and dark blue eyes that may have been piercing, but were currently too full of tearful concern to be so. She had a strong, stocky frame, with thick arms and thighs. Flyaway, voluminous curls framed her face and upper body in bruise-purple. She was crouching slightly with her hand outstretched, as though frozen, as he was, in mid-movement, about to drop to his level to check if he was injured. 

“That… isn’t true at all, sir, I should’ve been more aware of the space around me! Here…” She unfroze herself and took his hand (far more gingerly than he was expecting, he thought ashamedly), helping him to his feet. “M-My name is Kihaji Granger, by the way. I’ve completely ruined our introduction, but I’m still glad to meet you!” 

“Ruined? Kihaji, Dr. Harvey has done worse to himself _this week_!” Maru said from behind her, having minimized her laughter to sporadic giggling. “Speaking of, you’d better not get angry with her about this or I’ll quit!” 

“ _Maru_!” Kihaji squeaked, horrified. 

“I’m not angry about any of this, Maru, it was an accident. Now stop with the empty threats, you’re scaring our guest.” Harvey said sternly, before turning back to Kihaji. “My name is Harvey, I’m the local doctor. It’s good to meet you, too.” He paused, before continuing . “If you ever feel unwell, please feel free to stop by the clinic. You’re welcome anytime, truly.” Kihaji smiled in response, a smile unlike the small one that seemed to be her default expression. It was a wide grin, genuine, warm, and grateful. Harvey felt a little light-headed. Perhaps he’d hit his head harder than he thought. 

Kihaji stopped by every other day or so after that. At first, she seemed to be there just to spend time with Maru, which Harvey understood. She and Maru were very close in age, and from what Harvey could see the two got on like a house on fire. Maru was a lovable chatterbox full to bursting with creative ideas that she expressed quickly but not concisely, and Kihaji was a receptive sounding board with good insights, a wild imagination of her own, and a penchant for well-thought-out, concise points. They went well together. 

(Harvey only knew all this, of course, because he happened to be nearby a lot when they were talking. Coincidentally. Kihaji had became more comfortable with the clinic thanks to his and Maru’s combined efforts, so it wasn’t odd for her to be sitting behind the reception counter, or helping Maru clean in the larger patient care room while they talked.) 

But after a while, Harvey noticed that even on days when Maru wasn’t working, Kihaji would stop by and say hello to him alone. Sometimes she would bring him fresh produce from her farm, sometimes some of the wine from her newest business venture. On a few slow rainy days, he’d be leaning bored on the reception counter when she’d sidle in, dripping slightly, with a cup of hot coffee from the saloon she’d thought to get for him. Often they’d sit and chat with their drinks for a while, sometimes even for a couple hours at a time. 

It was… nice. 

Harvey now considered Kihaji a good friend. She’d only been in town for a year, but it felt like she’d been there all along. She was like a puzzle piece that had been missing, and slotted perfectly into place after it was returned. It was remarkable, really. Even Maru thought so, the few times they’d talked about it…

_KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK_

Harvey’s thoughts were interrupted by a sharp, loud, frantic knocking on the door. He leaned the broom up against the far wall and made his way to the front door. 

“Open the hell up, Doc, I know you’re in there, the damned light’s on!” A gruff voice shouted from the other side of the door. Harvey quizzically unlocked it, pulling it open. 

“Shane? Are you alright, it’s pretty late at nigh… t…” Harvey’s blood ran cold for a split second. Shane, who looked more than his normal amount of exhausted, was shouldering the weight of Kihaji Granger, who was unconscious, soaking wet, and clearly bleeding through her lilac thermal shirt. Shane must have had to drag her for a ways, as the whole of her boots were caked in fresh mud. “Wh-What…?!” Harvey took a moment to remember how to form words. His mouth felt a little numb. 

“Look, as much as I’d love to stand in the rain and explain, Granger is heavy, and _bleeding_.” Shane growled. Harvey stammered out something affirmative and opened the door wide, helping Shane bring Kihaji to the back room and lay her down on one of the beds. He checked her over, pushing her sodden hair out of the way and noting ugly bruises and small, superficial-seeming lacerations running down one side of her face. 

“What can you tell me, Shane?” Harvey attempted to put on his professional voice. It was only slightly shaky, he noted proudly, before feeling the same uneasiness return to churn in his gut. 

“She passed out from exhaustion. I saw her stumbling down the stairs from the upper part of town, called out to her because she seemed out of it, noticed the blood, and then had to scramble to make sure she didn’t kill herself when she fainted.” Shane scrubbed at his face with his hands. 

“That’s where all these wounds came from? The stairs?” Harvey asked skeptically, as he unwrapped Kihaji’s blue-violet scarf from around her neck. He winced when he saw the bruises continue their path downward. 

“No. She must’ve been in the mines most of the day today, her pack is full of ore and shit.” Shane plopped a heavy-looking backpack down on the floor as he took a seat on the opposite side of the bed from Harvey. 

“The mines?” Harvey felt a little shell-shocked. He’d known that Kihaji went down there fairly often, but when he’d expressed concern she’d told him that she hated the place and only stuck to the top couple levels, where it was relatively safe. “But I thought the only things in the upper levels of the mines are insects, some slimes, nothing that could do _this_ to her…” 

“The idiot hasn’t just been sticking to the top levels, doc.” Shane sighed, sitting back and crossing his arms. “She’s reached somewhere around the seventieth floor of that thrice-damned place.” Harvey stared at Shane for a long moment. 

“I’m sorry, did you say seventeen?” 

“Seventieth, Harvey.” Shane repeated impatiently. “Seven zero.” 

“That’s impossible. Kihaji hates the mines.” Harvey said flatly. He looked back down at Kihaji, who was currently breathing shallowly. She was still bleeding from her side. Harvey reached for a pair of sterile scissors from his meticulously organized pull-out drawers. He focused on the task of cutting away her shirt. Normally he’d flat-out ask Shane to leave, but he knew that he and Kihaji were, however odd it was, extremely close friends, and he still needed more information. He held up the scissors and gave Shane a questioning look. 

“I know, I know. ‘They’re dark and full of things that want to hurt me that I don’t want to hurt back,’ she says.” Shane groaned and dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. He was also pointedly looking away from Kihaji, which Harvey took as his cue to begin cutting her shirt away. “But she’s on some sort of mission. Insists she needs to go down there to get the right materials for it. She’s been doing it for a couple months, comes back more banged up each time. It’s never been this bad, though. Not that I know of, anyway.” 

“Never _this_ bad? Then…?” 

“It’s usually just a few bruises, some bad scrapes. But nothing a bandage and some antiseptic couldn’t fix. Lately it’d been getting worse, though. Last time I saw her before tonight, about a week ago, she had a split lip and a bruise the size of an apple under her eye. That’s still there, actually.” Harvey looked at Kihaji’s face and saw there was indeed a fading bruise on the right side of her face. He recalled that he hadn’t seen her in person for about a week. He felt oddly sick to his stomach. “I asked her what the hell was going on, but all she told me was that the mines were getting tougher. Then she just grinned away and said she was nearly done, and I didn’t need to worry. And yet, here we are. She’s the most infuriating kid on the _planet_ , I swear.” Shane muttered and buried his hands in his hair out of frustration. 

Harvey said nothing in response, but simply finished cutting away Kihaji’s shirt. The bruises ran all the way to the top of her hip bone, as though the top half of her had been slammed into a wall several times. That would explain the superficial lacerations, he supposed. Beyond that, the actual bleeding was coming from an uneven gash near her ribs, looking less like she was cut and more like a piece of her was torn out. _Bitten_ out. Harvey swore quietly. Shane looked over at the noise, blanched when he saw the wound, then rose quickly from his chair. 

“Look, I’ll leave you to it. If you need help with anything, just holler. I’ll… be in the waiting room, I guess.” As Shane left the room, Harvey looked down and gave Kihaji another once-over. 

He’d thought they’d become fairly close over the past year, that she trusted him. He supposed to some degree, she did trust him. She’d told him about her life before coming to the valley, about her family, about her fears and her dreams, just like he had told her. Yet despite all that, she’d been lying to him for months. And then something like this had happened, and he’d had no power to stop it because he didn’t _KNOW_. Harvey was so frustrated and confused and scared for her he could barely think straight, but he took a deep breath. He steadied his hands. He adjusted his glasses. He turned to ready everything he needed to treat her. 

Answers and explanations could wait. He was her doctor, and her friend. It was his responsibility to take care of her, and nothing was going to stop him from doing at least that much. Not now.


	2. Shane Explains

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shane didn't ask for this. He never should have let the kid buy him beer and ply him with her home cooking for a year. Now he's stuck in the waiting room of the clinic with the doctor GLARING at him. Like her being an idiot is HIS fault.

Shane was thumbing through an old magazine when Harvey entered the waiting room. Or, more accurately, he was pretending to thumb through it to keep from looking especially invested in anything that was happening around him. His eyes weren’t really moving across the pages, and his leg was bouncing with nervous energy. Under any other circumstances, Harvey would be worried about his behavior.

But not under _these_ circumstances.

“So,” Harvey began, deciding to approach this with _some_ subtlety before he visibly popped a blood vessel. “Kihaji will be fine. There wasn’t too much blood-loss, the wound is stitched up, it seems she was mostly just exhausted and in shock from the pain.”

“That’s good. I’m glad.” Shane said, awkwardly. A long silence followed, punctuated by Harvey letting out an impatient sigh.

“Shane.” Harvey said, arms crossed.

“Mm?” Shane grunted noncommittally, turning the page of the magazine.

“Mind telling me what’s actually going on?”

Shane’s leg stopped bouncing, but he didn’t look up.

“Told you everything I know, doc.” he responded, voice even. “The kid went spelunking and got herself hurt, collapsed from exhaustion, I dragged her ass here. End of story.”

“Oh, really?” Harvey said in a clipped tone, sitting in the chair directly opposite of Shane and leaning forward. “Then why don’t you explain to me why that stomach wound of hers isn’t new?”

“… No idea what you’re talking about.” Shane said stonily. His eyes were scanning the page of the magazine in front of him far too quickly to be reading any of it. 

“Shane.” Harvey’s patience was wearing thin, but he kept his voice calm. “Put down the damn magazine and tell me why, if this is the first time this has happened, some creature in the mines was able to bite through Kihaji’s _recent stitches_ from a previous injury.”

Shane paused. He closed the magazine, put it back on the table, and met Harvey’s eyes.

“She, uh. Asked me not to talk to you about it.” he said, almost sheepishly. “As her friend.”

“Well, as her _doctor_ ,” Harvey growled. “Who just had to restitch a reopened wound I wasn’t even aware she had, that wasn’t stitched properly in the first place, _I’m_ asking you to talk to me about it!” Harvey had let a little actual anger slip out, there, he marked. He took a deep breath, then tried again. “ _Please_ , Shane. I need to know.”

Shane seemed to study him for a minute, looking for something in his face, before leaning forward, hands clasped on his knees.

“The kid doesn’t like hospitals.”

“I know. Apparently her grandfather was going to be transferred to a hospital full-time when he became ill, but something about the way they were doing things either made things worse or turned her off of hospitals entirely.” Harvey added thoughtfully. “She said that…”

“Well, _I_ didn’t know any of that until a week ago.” Shane interrupted, looking slightly annoyed. “Granger went down into the mines and got injured, but she made it back home, and decided that she was fine not getting treated for _missing a chunk of her abdomen_. She just… wrapped herself up and kept on working!” he flailed his hands exasperatedly. Harvey could sympathize, as he could feel his own anxiety rising at the thought.

“That is… monumentally unsafe.” 

“No shit. The kid is the absolute worst.” Shane continued, clearly incensed. “She’ll walk through a damn snowstorm to give Marnie a pumpkin pie ‘just because’, but Yoba forbid she take the time to see a doctor about a three-day fever of 104 degrees! That happened just this past winter, you know. She is fucking ridiculous.”

Harvey did know, actually. The only reason Kihaji had come in at all was because Maru had literally dragged her through the door. He still wasn’t sure how Maru managed that while being a head and a half shorter than the farmer in question, but it might have had something to do with her being delirious at the time.

“How long was she able to continue in that condition?” Harvey asked, trying to ignore the uneasiness in his stomach and push the story forward.

“She made it a whole day before she passed out in the woods near the ranch. I found her on my way back from the saloon. It’s a good thing she never takes off that damned glow ring, or she’d have been lying there for far longer than she was.” Shane leaned back in his chair, running a hand back through his hair. “I wasn’t really thinking. It was very, very late, and you’re usually closed by that time of night, so I dragged her to Joja instead. They’ve got a pretty professional setup in the back. It’s usually for employees only, they’d rather keep work accidents private, but they can make exceptions in emergencies for a fee. Things seemed to be going okay, they’d gotten her all patched up, but when the kid woke up in a bona fide, unfamiliar hospital bed…”

“She panicked, right?” Harvey finished for him, thinking back to her reaction to his clinic when she’d first arrived in town. “She, uhm. She gets attacks, sometimes. Especially when she’s disoriented.” Shane nodded.

“She was crying and everything. Not gonna lie, doc, I felt like shit.” Shane laughed humorlessly. “I’m glad I didn’t leave her there, either. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t stepped in to calm her down, the nurse they’ve got on-site was ready to just sedate the kid and have her dumped back at Milk & Honey.”

“That ‘nurse’,“ Harvey said with no small amount of venom. “Wouldn’t know how to suture a wound if it were presented like a sew-by-numbers children’s book. I could have done a better job when I was a first-year med student!”

“I’m not going to disagree, but I’ll warn you now that, legally speaking, that ‘nurse’ isn’t in Pelican Town.” Shane said. “I’m pretty sure I’m breaking a few non-disclosure agreements telling you about them in the first place.” Harvey removed his glasses and squeezed the bridge of his nose.

“So this is when you found out she didn’t like hospitals, and after she calmed down she told you _not_ to tell me about the whole thing?”

“I mean, yeah. The only reason I brought her here tonight is that I knew if she woke up here she wouldn’t panic nearly as much. She’s… comfortable with this place.”

“And you didn’t think _any_ of this might have been worth mentioning to me before it got to this point, if you knew she was putting herself in danger?”

“Hey, I told you, she asked me not to!” Shane snapped, rubbing the back of his neck. “And frankly, Harvey, Granger is a grown-ass woman. I wasn’t about to go running to you with all the gossip I’ve got on the kid just because you’ve got a _thing_ for her. None of us are _twelve_ , I figured she’d talk to you about all of this eventually on her own. I just didn’t think she was stupid enough to go back down into the mines when she’s supposed to be healing.”

“That’s true, you couldn’t have predicted that… wait, _WHAT_?” Harvey’s eyes widened as he rewound the conversation in his head. “Got a th… what are you _talking_ about!?”

“… Seriously?” Shane said incredulously after a short pause, raising an eyebrow. “Have you not heard your half of this conversation? You’ve got the tone of an overprotective dad interrogating his daughter’s prom date. Though I guess, given the actual situation, that’s not really what you’re going for. I hope. On second thought, I don’t want to know.” Shane snorted like he’d made some sort of joke, but Harvey for the life of him couldn’t figure out what was so damn funny.

“I don’t think I like what you’re implying.” Harvey ground out, feeling his face heating. “And I do _not_ appreciate your tone.”

“You know, I take it back. _You_ might actually be twelve.” Shane muttered. When Harvey just glared at him, he huffed out a frustrated sigh. “My main point is, it was Granger’s decision not to tell you about this. Whether it was a matter of trust or whatever, that’s above my pay-grade, so to speak. In fact, you really should be asking _her_ about all of this, not me.”

Harvey contemplated this for a moment, and the two sat in tense silence.

“… I… understand.” Harvey sighed, putting his glasses back on. “I’m sorry if I’ve reacted a bit strongly to all of this. I’m her friend as well as her doctor, you know. I worry.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.” Shane said, exasperation thinning his voice. Harvey frowned, and Shane scrubbed a hand over his face. “Look, it’s… fine. It’s not like I was exactly calm either. I’m worried about her too, which is why I told you any of this. Despite appearances, I usually try to keep promises I’ve made to my friends.” he smiled wanly.

With more than a little shame, Harvey realized he hadn’t really considered Shane’s stake in any of this. As worried as he’d been about Kihaji, and as wrapped up in his own questions about the trust between them as he had been, he’d barely spared a thought to the state of the person who’d brought her here. Despite his habit of referring to her as an idiot, Shane was also one of Kihaji’s closest friends. And Harvey had basically spent the last fifteen minutes grilling him about what had happened to her and directing his frustration at him, when he doubtless already felt responsible for the whole situation.

_Perfect. Good going, Harvey. More of your masterful social skills at work._

“And you, you’re… doing okay?” Harvey asked, stilted and awkward. Shane blinked at him for a moment before genuinely laughing, shaking his head in disbelief.

“I’m fine, doc. Thanks for asking.” he said, still snickering, rising from his seat and shoving his hands in his threadbare hoodie’s pockets. “Though I’d be better if at least one of us was in the back with the kid. Preferably you. My bedside manner is for shit.”

“I don’t know. From the sound of it, you did alright the first time around.” Harvey said cheerfully. He could feel the tension in the room dissipating, and he sighed in relief.

Shane, however, was already halfway to the door by the time he looked up again.

“Trust me, she’d much rather be seeing your face when she wakes up than mine, doc.” he said, gesturing vaguely. “I’ve got work in six hours, so I’m going to try to get some sleep.”

“Uh. Alright, then.” Harvey blinked, confused at the hasty departure. “Good night.”

“Night.” Shane waved, not even turning around as he disappeared through the door into the storm outside. Harvey hoped his hood was enough to keep the rain from drenching him completely.

As for him, he took Shane’s advice and pulled up a chair beside Kihaji, settling in with a book. If it helped her to see a friendly face when she woke up in an unfamiliar hospital bed, he’d never deny her that comfort.

(And if Harvey felt his fingers itch oddly whenever he glanced at her open hand laying still on the sheets, he ignored the feeling completely.)


	3. Kihaji Wakes Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Harvey and Kihaji finally have a talk. There is a lot of crying and hugging involved. As far as getting their shit together goes, it's a start.

Kihaji Granger had always been a heavy sleeper. Her grandpa had often said that she could probably sleep through a meteor crashing through the roof. And that had actually happened last fall, so it wasn’t like he had been _wrong_. But it was this same ability to sleep like one dead that was making it so difficult for Kihaji to wake up right this second, which presented a problem. Because if the last thing she could remember before now was correct, she had A) been outside in the rain, late at night, B) been in an extreme amount of pain, and C) not made it home. Which of course begged the question of why she could feel a soft, exceedingly welcoming mattress underneath her at the moment. And why she was bothering to wake up from such comfort at all, come to that.

_Ugh. Focus._

Kihaji flexed her fingers experimentally and grimaced as the feeling began returning to her body, the floating sensation of sleep slowly seeping out her. Her muscles felt like she’d been through a meat grinder, and the dull ache in her side reminded her of why she’d been in such excruciating pain before she’d evidently passed out yesterday. The lower levels of the mines were no joke, she’d found, and even less of a joke was how hard a shadow brute could slam you against a wall if it really wanted to hurt you. 

And oh, that one had _really_ wanted to hurt her. 

This, combined with the fact that not ten minutes beforehand she’d had her already-strained  injury reopened by a particularly vicious bat, had been the final straw for Kihaji, who’d promptly gotten the hell out of dodge as soon as she got in a few good whacks with her sword. She’d been hurting when she stumbled out of that elevator, and she could vaguely remember she’d decided to cut through town to get back home instead of the backwoods. Probably because she knew that passing out in the backwoods meant she wouldn’t be found for days, as opposed to hours. And that Shane would actually murder her for being so stupid, if she wasn’t already dead when she was found.

And it was with the thought of her friend, and the simultaneous remembering of the fact that he’d been the last face she’d seen before passing out the night before, that Kihaji finally opened her eyes. Blinking to clear her vision, it only took one look at the familiar ceiling for her to piece together where she was.

The clinic.

_Harvey’s_ clinic.

Her first thought upon realizing this was a heartfelt, _Shit._

Her second, was that she was never cooking for her traitorous asshole of a best friend again. _  
_

(Okay, she would never do that. Shane would die before hitting forty if he kept eating nothing but frozen pizza and eggs. If Kihaji let that happen on her watch, her grandma would probably rise from the grave to reprimand her for bringing dishonor on the Granger family name by not taking good enough care of her friends. Still, she reserved the right to be pissed at him for awhile.)

Kihaji forced herself to sit upright, her side screaming in protest, and gave herself a once-over. As she’d expected, her body was a mess of bruises and scrapes. She suspected her shirt had been ruined by her injuries, if the fact she was in just her sports bra was any indication. Kihaji ran her hand gently over her chubby stomach. The wound on her abdomen had obviously been restitched while she was out, and while it still hurt enormously, it definitely felt less like it was fit to burst than it had a week ago. 

The weary young woman rubbed at her bare arms, suddenly aware of how cold she was. Seeing her backpack on the floor, she slid gently from the bed, wincing in pain all the way down, and knelt as best she could to retrieve her emergency hoodie from its depths. As she zipped it up, grateful for its oversize warmth, she finally realized that she wasn’t alone in the clinic’s patient care room.

Harvey was fast asleep in a chair beside the bed she’d been occupying. His glasses were askew, his person even more rumpled than usual, and the book he’d presumably been reading before he’d fallen asleep ( _DIY Spinal Surgery, Volume II: The Lumbar Nerve and You!_ ) lay forgotten and closed across his lap. Kihaji tilted her head and smiled fondly at her good friend. She didn’t remember a thing about last night, but she could hazard a guess as to what had happened, and why the good doctor looked so exhausted. She sighed exasperatedly as she rounded the bed to stand by his chair.

_It figures that I’d go to all this trouble not to worry him, yet end up on his operating table without warning anyway._

Kihaji gently removed Harvey’s glasses and set them on the nearby table, then picked up the book and did the same. He seemed to barely register the movement, fussing only slightly before falling back into uninterrupted sleep. Kihaji took a look at the clock. Six in the morning, just about. She bit her lip in contemplation.

The conversation that was coming when Harvey woke up was not going to be a pleasant one. He’d be upset with her, she knew he would, and her explanation was nowhere near a good enough excuse for flat-out lying to him about her activities in the mines. She briefly considered running for it while she had the chance, but it wasn’t as though she had anywhere to hide in town. And Harvey knew where she lived. She’d just be delaying the inevitable. _  
_

_Besides_ , she thought as another shock of dull pain shot up her side, _I’m in no condition to run anywhere._

So she did the only thing she could think to do in this situation.

She headed for the kitchen.

* * *

“… Kihaji. What are you doing?”

Kihaji stiffened at the stern voice to her immediate left, but didn’t stop her ministrations at the stove.

“I’m making breakfast. You know, Harvey, for someone who doesn’t cook often, you have a lot of quality ingredients lying around.” she responded casually, flipping another pancake off of the pan and onto the waiting plate with its fellows. She dared a glance at the entryway to the kitchen, where Harvey was leaning against the wall with his arms crossed.

“I wonder whose fault that is, Miss Granger. Surely not that of the overly-generous local farmer.” Harvey’s lips twitched into a ghost of a smile, before falling back into a serious line. Kihaji turned off the heat on the stove. “You know what I meant, Kihaji. You should be resting.”

“I think I’ve done enough of that for today, doctor.” Kihaji said tightly, lifting the pan off the stove and running it under cold water. Steam wafted up from the sink with a hiss.

“Evidently you haven’t been doing enough of that for _weeks_.“ Harvey had moved away from the wall. Kihaji refused to look at him, focusing instead on the pan currently filling with water. “Shane told me what’s been going on.”

“I figured as much. It’s a bit hard to lie to a medical professional when the proof is literally on display in front of them.” She wanted to laugh, turn it all into one big joke, but her stomach was in knots and she was sure that any excess sound she let slip would come out as a croaking sob. “So. You know I lied to you about the mines. About getting injured.”

“I do.”

“I don’t think ‘I’m sorry’ is adequate here, but I’m saying it anyway. I really am sorry. I had to go down there, I need the materials, and… well… that doesn’t matter either. I’m still sorry.” she said softly, turning off the sink and reaching for the towel. It wasn’t where she’d left it, so she turned to look for it only to see that Harvey was holding it out to her. She met his eyes as she took it, and nearly jumped out of her skin when he took the opportunity after she’d used it to grasp her hands and hold her gently in place.

“I appreciate the apology, Kihaji, I do. But what I want to know is why you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth.” Making actual eye contact with Harvey for the first time during this conversation caused Kihaji to realize that, while he looked upset, the emotion behind it wasn’t anger. It was… pain. Hurt. It startled her. Why did he look _hurt_? 

“T-Trust you?” she stammered. “Why would my trust in you be in question here? Of course I trust you!” Harvey huffed out a sigh.

“Kihaji, you’ve been lying to me for _months_ about what you’ve been doing in the mines. You’ve been badly injured multiple times —- yes, multiple, don’t try to deny that, I saw those other scars you’ve been hiding — and didn’t think to come to me, not even once. You could have gotten sick, you could have become immobile, you could have _died_ , and no one would know! _I_ wouldn’t know!” Kihaji was startled to see that Harvey was tearing up, and that now _he_ was the one avoiding eye contact with _her_. The gentle grip on her hands tightened slightly as he continued. “You just… just _let_ yourself be in pain, and you didn’t let me _help_ you! That’s what I’m here for, Kihaji! I’m your doctor, I’m your friend, and you didn’t trust me enough to…!”

Harvey was cut off as Kihaji wrapped her arms around his shoulders and pulled him into a hug. It was easy to forget, sometimes, how large she was in comparison to everyone around her. Something about all the open space in Stardew Valley made her feel normal and comfortably small in a way that the city never had. 

But it was times like these that she remembered. Harvey was the only person in town remotely close to her in height, and yet that extra two inches she had on him made all the difference when she felt him sink into her and hug her back. At this moment, she hoped he felt surrounded by love and appreciation, _needed_ him to feel surrounded by it.

“Never doubt that I trust you, Harvey. You’re one of the best friends I’ve ever had. I’m lucky to even be on your radar, let alone know you as well as I do.” Kihaji squeezed slightly as she heard Harvey give a watery laugh. “Hey, stop that, I’m serious. The only reason I didn’t come to you… well. It was selfishness. Embarrassment.”

“What do you mean?” Harvey asked, pulling out of the hug to look at her. He looked surprised and felt around in his pockets to offer her a handkerchief. As she took it gratefully, Kihaji was not shocked to realize that she was crying, though she was confused as to how she hadn’t noticed when.

“A couple things, I guess. I didn’t want to worry you, for one thing. You have enough on your plate without the added stress of knowing that the girl who brings you coffee as an excuse to annoy you sometimes is venturing straight into monster territory every other rainy day.”

“You don’t annoy me, Kihaji.” Harvey glowered at her, and Kihaji fought the urge to laugh.

“Joking, joking. I suppose the second reason is…  I didn’t want you to see me in that light.” when she noted the confusion on his face, she sighed. “Before I came to the valley, when I lived in the city,  I didn’t have many friends. Almost none, in fact. And the reason for that is… well, look at me.” she gestured at all six feet, four inches, and two-hundred-twelve pounds of herself.

“Why would that…?”

“Harvey, I’m over a foot taller than most women my age, and have been since I was a little girl. Generally, when people see a person that large they assume things. About their temper, their strength. People were afraid of me. I’ve always kept myself in check to make sure I never hurt anyone by accident and never gave anyone cause to believe that of me. But in the mines…”

“You don’t have a choice down there, Kihaji. It’s dangerous, and the monsters don’t understand that you don’t want to hurt them.” Harvey reached out to squeeze her shoulder comfortingly. “That doesn’t make you what they thought you were. Nothing can, because that’s not who you are and the people who matter _know_ it.” Kihaji smiled wanly.

“Ha. I should have known better than to think you would think less of me for this. I argued with myself over and over, thinking you wouldn’t, knowing you wouldn’t, but I always came back to that same little doubt. I guess in the end, the one I didn’t trust was _myself_.” Kihaji laughed and ran a hand back through the mop of curls in her face, shoving them back behind her ear. “Ugh, what a mess. But, there you have it. That’s my explanation. Pathetic, right?”

Harvey gave her a hard look before bringing her in for another hug.

“No, it’s not. I just wish you’d _talked_ to me before it got this out of hand.” he murmured into her shoulder. “Just promise me you won’t do this again? At least not without letting me know first? You’ll give this old man a heart attack”

“You’re not _that_ old, Harvey.” Kihaji chuckled.

“And don’t go back to bloody _Joja_ to get treated for anything _ever again_. I nearly popped a blood vessel when I saw what a shoddy job they did!” he continued, pulling out of the hug and glowering.

“Okay, Harvey.” Kihaji was fighting back laughter, the wound on her abdomen protesting slightly from the strain.

“And for Yoba’s sake, _please_ go lay down before you ruin your stitches?” Harvey leveled a sincere, but only marginally serious, “doctor’s glare” at Kihaji, holding her at arm’s length.

“If I do, you big Mother Hen, will you stay with me to eat these?” Kihaji jerked her head to indicate the large plate of pancakes, still warm and waiting on the counter-top. Harvey’s mouth twitched into a crooked, fond smile.

“… Deal.”

(The pleasant morning that followed was almost worth Maru teasing Kihaji relentlessly for the next two weeks about apparently making the good doctor a “Morning After” breakfast. She stopped when Kihaji withheld her rhubarb pie indefinitely, however, so… all’s well that ends well.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! I hope you've enjoyed this short fic of mine. I'll probably have lots more ficlets to come in this version of the Stardew Valley universe. Until next time, be well, friends!


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